Milan Kovac, Vice President of Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot program, has announced his departure from the company after nearly ten years of service. Kovac shared the news in a personal statement on the social media platform X, emphasizing that his decision was solely motivated by a desire to spend more time with family abroad.
“This is the only reason, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything else,” Kovac wrote. “My support for Elon Musk and the team is ironclad—Tesla team forever.”
Kovac joined Tesla in 2016 as an engineer on the Autopilot team and played a key role in the development and evolution of Tesla’s driver assistance systems. In 2022, he transitioned to lead the Optimus program to build a general-purpose humanoid robot. Under his leadership, the Optimus team grew rapidly and delivered multiple functional prototypes.
The robots are already being tested within Tesla’s own factories, and CEO Elon Musk has said they could be deployed in the thousands by the end of 2025.
In his farewell message, Kovac reflected on the early days of the Optimus project, describing how it started with “a couple Kuka arms arranged upside-down” and evolved into a full-stack robotics platform. “This amazing team did it. They did it, I didn’t,” he wrote, crediting the engineering and AI teams for their progress.
Ashok Elluswamy, who currently leads the Autopilot and AI software teams, will reportedly take over responsibility for Optimus going forward. Elluswamy has worked closely with both the Autopilot and Optimus teams and is expected to provide continuity and leadership as the program moves closer to large-scale deployment.
Over the past 9+ years, I’ve had the immense privilege to work with some of the most brilliant minds in AI & engineering. I’ve built friendships that will last a lifetime.
— Milan Kovac (@_milankovac_) June 6, 2025
This week, I’ve had to make the most difficult decision of my life and will be moving out of my position.… pic.twitter.com/ENwYRDQkMO
